Unexpected Gifts by Ron x Hermione
Chapter Notes: HI everyone! This was written for the Christmas Challenge, the prompt: Gift of the Magi. I am Ron x Hermione of Hufflepuff House! Please review, and Merry Christmas!
Another Christmas was coming, but they wouldn’t be able to afford anything special for each other this year.
Ever since Hermione and Ron had married, their funds for basically anything had been low.
Ron, for the last few years, had been studying to become an Auror. He hadn’t had the money to get into the top-most training of the job, yet he had made it through somehow. With more and more raids at work, Ron was spending less and less time at home, with his beautiful wife.
Hermione didn’t regret this though; Ron was very well respected within the Magical World, and they needed the money. She worked at a small bookstore south of the Burrow. It definitely didn’t pay much, but it was what she enjoyed doing.
But ever since Ron had been laid off at work, they were having some financial problems.
They didn’t have that much money in their account in Gringotts, and they still needed to buy a few more Christmas presents for their family and friends.
They had already bought things for their family: Mrs. Weasley got a knitted scarf and some mince pies, Mr. Weasley got a toolbox full of Muggle tools, Ginny, another scarf, and Harry, some books for his job that he had now held for more than a year: Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts.
They had also gotten Fred and George a few things, along with the rest of Ron’s others, and then Hermione’s parents.
Hoping they hadn’t forgotten anyone, they both realized separately that they had forgotten to get each other a present. They didn’t want this year to be a complete fiasco, but they just didn’t have the money.
~ * ~
It was Christmas Eve, and Ron still couldn’t figure out what to buy Hermione for Christmas.
He had thought about what to get her for days, but nothing ever seemed to come to mind. He thought about getting her more books to add to her collection, but she already had everything. And if she didn’t have it, then she had borrowed or already read it.
Ron was in a rut, and he knew it.
He had to get her something. But it couldn’t be just any something. It had to be special. This was their first Christmas together after all, and he didn’t want to ruin it by not buying her a present.
It couldn’t cost too much money, yet he wanted it to be nice. Nothing second-hand, like he had had so many times in his childhood years.
No. This had to be something so remarkable, that Hermione would just gasp when she saw it. It had to be something extraordinary.
He racked his brains for something ---anything--- to help him with the task of the perfect Christmas present, and it finally hit him.
A handbag for all of Hermione’s books!
It was perfect. She always needed something to carry those bulky things around, yet it had to be stylish enough for a woman, and not be too heavy and a bother to carry around.
It was perfect, and as soon as he got off of work that day, he’d get the perfect present.
~ * ~
Hermione was in another one of her usual predicaments. She had had a hard enough time getting presents for her parents, now buying something for her husband seemed a terribly arduous thing to do.
She loved Ron; with all her heart at that, but she just couldn’t buy men presents. Harry had also been particularly hard, but with Ron’s help, they had found out what fit him best in the end.
She thought about all of the things he loved: being an Auror, her, Quidditch…
That was it! Quidditch!
Well, she couldn’t very well buy him a new broom--- brooms were just too expensive for them to afford right now. But she could buy him something that could help replenish his old one.
A Broom Servicing Kit.
The thing that he called a “broomstick” was the same one that he had received in his fifth year, due to becoming prefect. They were now nearing their seventh year out of Hogwarts, and that was just too old. Draco Malfoy would have loved to boast about that.
His “broom” now just sat in the corner of their den, collecting dust. Every so often on the weekends, Harry and Ron would go out to Hogwarts and teach students to play Quidditch. It was kind of like a club that Harry had started for his students, as he was Head of Gryffindor House now.
Ron thoroughly enjoyed doing this, and he particularly enjoyed being around children.
That was why Hermione was pregnant with their first child. It was due sometime next year, as she was now only seven months pregnant.
She wanted to get Ron the ideal Christmas present, but hoped that she could afford to get him even that.
~ * ~
“Uh… yeah. I was wondering if you had a handbag... one that you could put books in?” Ron asked a sales clerk later that day.
“Yeah,” she said uninterestingly, “Towards the back of the store.” She pointed absent-mindedly in front of herself.
“Er--- thanks,” he told her.
Ron walked to the back of the huge shop. It was almost as big as Fred and George’s store, Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, and they upgraded it to be three stories.
The place had basically everything, and it was like some store that Harry had mentioned awhile back...“Wal-Tart”… he thought it was. “Sounds like some sort of food," he thought to himself. ”Which reminds me. I’m hungry…”
He suddenly ducked behind a rather ugly dummy wearing an even uglier green polka-dotted dress.
Hermione was here.
“What was she doing here? She couldn’t be buying a present could she?” Ron asked himself frantically. “She never leaves anything until the last minute!” He thought back to their fifth year at Hogwarts, when she had given him and Harry a homework planner. He still remembered the annoying phrases it would say over and over as you opened it. But that still didn’t explain as to why she was here.
But then it hit him.
She was shopping for him.
He suddenly had the slightest desire to follow her to see what she was buying for him; but that attempt quickly vanished as she looked his way again. He hoped the mannequin was concealing him well.
Another minute had passed before he had the courage to look for her again.
But when he came out from behind the model, she was gone.
“Ah well,” he said aloud, “Hopefully I won’t run into her again.”
He scurried to the back of the shop, looking around for the perfect gift.
He turned a corner and saw tons of the book bags he was seeking. All of them were different in some way. There were colors of black, blue, green, and multi-colored handbags, and not to mention that they came in five different sizes and even more materials.
He didn’t know what to get Hermione. He knew that her favorite flower was a rose, and he saw a white handbag with roses printed on it.
It was perfect.
He walked over to the rack it was sitting on and held it in his hands. He ran his fingers down the sides; it felt like velvet. It wouldn’t be too big for Hermione’s small frame to carry, and it would hold all of her books.
He looked at the price tag.
”Sixteen Galleons, two Sickles, and three Knuts.”
He almost let out a laugh. How in the world was he going to get that kind of money? There was no way!
Unless…
~ * ~
Hermione went to a rather large supermarket that she had never been to to find Ron’s gift. She very well didn’t know what she would find. Yet she found no harm in looking.
As she walked past a shelf of owl food, she saw Ron coming right towards her.
“Oh, for Merlin’s sake!” she whispered to herself, “As if I’m not already having a hard time!”
She looked away quickly and headed towards the opposite end of the store. She found the Broom Service Kits near the Muggle house-hold cleaning supplies, though wondered why they were there.
“Seventeen Galleons?!” she shrieked aloud. She was amazed that something as small as that could cost more than seven, but though it no use in fretting over the price; there was nothing she would be able to do about it. She’d have to find another present for Ron.
Unless…
~ * ~
“Hermione! I’m home, sweetheart,” Ron called as he stepped into the front door of their home. He was clutching an oddly wrapped gift in his hands; but it was a gift all the same.
He walked into the den and felt that something was missing. He looked into the usual corner of the room that his eyes averted to, but found it useless. He had gotten something much more important than that silly old thing.
Hermione walked in from the kitchen, drying her hands on a dishtowel. She smiled at him, and reaching up on tiptoe, gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Hermione walked over to their beautiful Christmas tree, decorated with gold and red tinsel, multi-colored shiny ornaments, and a beautiful angel on top.
She grabbed a fairly large, box-shaped package, decorated perfectly by Hermione herself, and hid it behind her back.
“Ron… I know that we are supposed to wait until Christmas morning to do this… but I wanted to give this to you now,” she told him, holding out the gift for him.
“Well, I got you a little something too,” he told her, giving her the package he had bought. They stared at each other before they sat on the couch to unwrap them.
“Oh, Ron!” Hermione squealed, holding up the attractive bag. She stared in awe at it for a few seconds, but then her smile faded, realizing something. But Ron didn’t see.
“This is great, Hermione!” Ron told her, holding up the box and gazing at the shiny gold and silver letters embossed on it. “But…” he felt his ears turning red.
“What?” Hermione asked quickly. “Don’t you like it? ‘Cause if you don’t like it we can---”
“No, Hermione. I love it--- it’s just… it’s---” He didn’t know what to tell her.
“I don’t have anything to use this kit on,” he told her.
She was silent.
“Oh…” Hermione said softly. “Well that’s funny. Because I sold all of my books to buy your kit.”
“And I sold my… broomstick for your handbag.”
They stared at each other.
“I just wanted you to have a good Christmas, but I guess---” Ron started.
“Oh Ron! No! I will have a good Christmas! As long as I’m with you, I’ll be as happy as I’ve ever been.”
Ron smiled at her. “Me too,” he said, putting a hand on her belly. “And we’ll soon have someone to share it with.”
Hermione and Ron beamed at each other before passionately kissing under the light of their beautiful Christmas tree. And that night, they both realized something.
You don’t always need gifts to have a good Christmas; you just have to have a good person to share it with.
- Merry Christmas Everyone, Please Review! ~Lindsey :)